Ecotourism as Environmental Justice? Discourse and the Politics of Scale in the Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve, India

Ecotourism can serve as a means for environmental justice, providing local communities with both economic opportunities and a platform to challenge exclusionary practices within mainstream environmental movements. This study demonstrates that by framing their struggles through ecotourism discourse, local people in the Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve were able to engage with broader environmental efforts while addressing social injustices. The research employs discourse analysis and examines the politics of scale to argue for an expanded notion of environmental justice that accounts for global resource rights movements. It highlights how a focus on social justice within ecotourism can offer viable livelihoods while critiquing biocentric biases in conservation practices.

Bosak, K.,. (2010). Ecotourism as Environmental Justice? Discourse and the Politics of Scale in the Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve, India. Environmental Philosophy, 7(2), 49–74. https://doi.org/10.5840/envirophil20107215